Betting shops 'blight on our high streets'

The recent Future of Britain report asked consumers what would constitute their ideal high street. Top ranking were a bank, a chemist/health store, newsagents and family butcher/baker. Bottom of the list came a pawnbroker (3%) and a bookmaker (9%). To quote the report:

The fate of the high street is one of the issues that most concern the British public. The study found that 76% of adults are concerned about the future of our high streets and a significant proportion  would back a limit on the number of pawnbrokers and betting shops allowed to open in local areas....the vast majority of British shoppers regard betting shops and pawnbrokers as a blight on our high streets.

You don't have to look very far for the evidence. A cafe on our estate sadly had to close earlier this year due to lack of trade. The new owners of the unit are

the sign went up a couple of weeks ago, and our first local bookies is opening soon. Earlier this week the outlet right next door, a hairdresser, announced it was closing down. People have already noted that having a bookies next door would put people off using the place. I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes harder to let the unit as well. Sadly the bookies seems to outlast better shops - in a neighbouring estate the current line-up is a fish and chip shop, charity shop, bookies and tattoo parlour. Not so long ago we had a post office and fruit and veg shop.

The betting industry works hard to keep politicians onside, and problem gambling is on the rise, despite the recession (or maybe because of it - the industry seems to target poorer areas). Research suggests that if you increase access to gambling, that has a knock-on increase on problem gambling. But we can't just blame other people, local communities have to use the shops they want to keep: ASDA will keep trundling on, but the small business down the road depends on local people to use it. And if we don't, people like Ladbrokes will move in.

One bit of the economy where we'd welcome a recession

A huge increase in gambling addicts will make Britain's obsession with online betting a £2bn business. New evidence reveals that the number of people in danger of becoming problem gamblers has reached nearly a million, while hardcore addicts have doubled in six years to almost 500,000. 

The Independent is reporting on a staggering rise in problem gambling, despite the recession. It's bizarre that with a triple-dip recession in most parts of the economy, our boom areas are things like gambling and cosmetic surgery

Campaigners and support groups find it increasingly difficult to cope. Visitors to GamCare's website rose by more than 100,000 in 2012 compared with 2011. The charity predicts it will answer more than 44,000 calls this year – a 22 per cent rise on 2012. Of people needing GamCare's help last year, 34 per cent of all callers had problems with the internet, second only to betting shops (46 per cent). While 18 per cent used the internet as their primary location in 2011, this rose to 23 per cent last year. More than 20 per cent of the callers were under 18.

It's good to see at least one major media outlet putting this on the front page. I wonder if any of the others - many of them dependent on gambling for advertising revenues - will follow suit. The current government seems reluctant to change the law on gambling, but we've seen what happens to David Cameron if enough people make enough noise..... 

The National Lottery: pet parasite of the nation.

It's amazing how quickly we come to regard institutionalised sin as part of the national furniture:

There are those who claim that to argue against a pastime which gives moments of pleasure in ordinary lives is elitist and snobbish. The truth is the very opposite. It is the Lottery which is the ultimate in social divisiveness. The poor make regular contributions to the rich; in return, one out of many millions will be rewarded and held up as an example of the good fortune which could befall any of them. Could there be a more cynical form of elitism?

If Conservatives truly believed in the importance of work and the market, they would oppose the National Lottery. If those on the left disapproved of exploitation of the vulnerable, their position would be the same. Yet in politics and in the media, it is given a free ride.

Camelot has announced that the Lottery is being revamped. Its central message will, of course, remain unchanged. Your life can be transformed by greed and gambling.

more here. 

As reported last week, Camelot are doubling the price that Lotterites will have to pay for their weekly fix, offset by rises in payouts to the miniscule number who actually win. Did you notice the big national debate that kicked off? Me neither, with the above article being one of the exceptions.

Gambling is a cancer on the poor, sucking most money out of the most deprived communities. A local set of shops in one of the less prosperous parts of  Yeovil has seen several businesses and retailers fail, yet the bookies carries on. The gambling industry has been strangely immune to the recession, with year on year increases almost across the board even since the banking crash. . 

Meanwhile some of the MPs who are supposed to scrutinise this are in the pay of the gambling industry. One  bad but possibly credible argument for raising MPs salaries is that it will make them harder for vested interests to buy, but with several billion to play with I can see the gaming industry comfortably outbidding whatever salary we give our legislators. Government statistics show that problem gambling has increased, despite the recession, yet what's happening to address this? At least the Camelot price hike might put a few more people off the gateway drug of the Lottery, though I doubt this has come high in their considerations. 

The gambling industry is a parasite, and the Lottery is its equivalent of bread and circuses. If the BBC can devote prime hours each week to promoting the Lottery, then don't expect them to host a national debate on its merits. That's going to have to come from somewhere else, but we have to have it. 

Derren Brown & Hubble: 2 remarkable things after bedtime

After an excellent evening with our confirmation group, a series of amazing things:

- England winning a sporting contest

- the latest Hubble space telescope pictures

- Derren Brown had a staged attempt to predict 5 out of 6 lottery numbers from this evenings draw (see earlier post). He got all 6. On Friday he'll explain how he did it. Remarkable. Up on Youtube already, if you want to try to spot any fakery, it certainly wasn't obvious, if it was there.

update: here's one thread on how he might have done it.

Derren Brown: Place Your Bets

Update: he got all 6 balls exactly right. How in the world.....??

At 10.35 this evening, Derren Brown will attempt to predict the Lottery winning numbers, just before they're drawn. No indication at present that it's a publicity stunt for the nations most popular tax, but you never know.

Here's Mr Brown explaining all, more here. Fascinating that lots of people on his blog are wishing him 'good luck', even though as a good sceptic Brown doesn't believe in that sort of thing. Old habits die hard...




I shall be looking forward to the week when he plans to 'take down a casino'. If only he'd do it as a matter of principle, rather than as a demonstration of whatever it is he's going to be demonstrating. At one level it may be a 'harmless bit of fun', but anything that gets people more fascinated by gambling and how to do it successfully is potentially toxic. Gambling is addictive, it destroys families and destroys lives.

If Derren Brown manages it then a lot of us will want to know how. I may be one of the few whose curiosity isn't driven by a desire to win the Lottery next week!

Good Friday

Apparently the bookies will be open today, for the first time on a Good Friday. I guess if soldiers can gamble for his clothes whilst Jesus is dying on the cross a few yards away, we shouldn't be surprised. Gambling is, after all, addictive. Jesus came to set us free from things like that, but sometimes slavery seems more appealing. Or perhaps it has such a grip on us that only a power strong enough to raise the dead could break it.

Almighty Father

look with mercy on this your world

for which our Lord Jesus Christ

was content to be betrayed

and given up into the hands of wicked men

and to suffer death upon the cross;

who is alive and glorified with you and the Holy Spirit

one God, now and for ever. Amen.

All of a Flutter

“We expect industries to clean up their pollution,” he said. “The gambling industry is profoundly costly, its human pollution in terms of promoting addiction, destroying family life and so forth, is manifest. The gambling industry needs to take responsibility.”

Rowan Williams at the Synod debate earlier this week on gambling. Some frightening stats on how much we gamble - £40 bn a year - make it all the more welcome that the Manchester supercasino idea has been dropped. Well done Gordon Brown for putting it under review in the first place, and lets hear no more rubbish about 'regeneration'. A bizarre story in the news today, provoking a sparky phone in on 5 live, about a man who is suing his bookie for the fact he lost over £2m quid whilst gambling. He had asked them to close his account - I guess this is the gamblers equivalent of chopping up your credit cards - something they failed to do, making it easier for him to gamble on later occasions.